Name: Video: Aimee Bock faces sentencing in Feeding Our Future fraud case
Description: Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock faces sentencing after prosecutors say she led a massive scheme that stole hundreds of millions of dollars from pandemic-era child nutrition programs.

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The founder of a nonprofit that’s become synonymous with fraud in Minnesota faces sentencing Thursday. Federal prosecutors are 

 for Aimee Bock, who founded and led Feeding Our Future. Last year, a jury convicted Bock of orchestrating what investigators say was the nation’s largest COVID-era fraud scheme.

After more than five weeks of testimony in early 2025, jurors took just five hours to 

 Bock on all seven counts of wire fraud and bribery.

After the verdict, then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson told reporters prosecutors proved Bock was the undisputed ringleader of the nation’s largest COVID-19 fraud case.

for Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock

“She signed every single fraudulent claim that was submitted to the state of Minnesota,” Thompson said. “She cut every single check, all $240 million worth of checks to every defendant in this case. She was involved in taking kickbacks.”

Bock, 45, grew up in Cottage Grove and has a degree in elementary education. After working as a substitute teacher and in childcare, she moved into the nonprofit world.

A decade ago, she founded Feeding Our Future. When the pandemic disrupted daily life in 2020, prosecutors say Bock exploited relaxed oversight and emergency rule changes in the Child and Adult Care and Summer Food Service programs. Feeding Our Future enrolled dozens of restaurants and small nonprofits as meal distribution sites, even though many served little or no food.

Feeding Our Future collected about $43 million at the start of the pandemic. By the following year, prosecutors say Bock and her co-defendants had claimed nearly $200 million in taxpayer money.

The federal funds flowed through the Minnesota Department of Education, which administers the nutrition programs at the state level.

“Frankly, MDE wasn’t prepared to deal with a fraud like this,” said Deputy Legislative Auditor Katherine Theisen. 

After Bock was indicted, Theisen and her team spent 18 months examining how the state allowed so much money to flow out the door unchecked.

Theisen found no evidence that state workers or elected officials personally benefited from the fraud. But she said MDE repeatedly failed to act, even as Feeding Our Future claimed to serve millions of meals in a state with about 1.3 million children.

“We saw time and time again where MDE raised concerns about Feeding Our Future’s operations or missed opportunities or missed red flags,” Theisen said, “leading to it not taking the actions that it had the authority to take all along.”

For nearly two years, prosecutors say Bock and her co-conspirators submitted fake invoices, suspiciously round meal counts and attendance records listing fictional children.

When MDE tried to cut off payments, Bock briefly prevailed in state court after suing the department for racial discrimination.

Bock is white, but most of the 79 defendants charged in the case are Somali American. Though nearly all are U.S. citizens, President Donald Trump later cited Feeding Our Future and related Medicaid fraud allegations as justification for a federal immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota.

White-collar criminologist Bill Black says the scheme was massive but not especially sophisticated. Black, who teaches at the University of Minnesota Law School, previously worked as a banking regulator investigating savings and loan fraud.

“You don’t need super sophisticated accounting or tax analytics,” Black said. “This is people creating fake documents. And the fake documents won’t stand up to even five minutes of inquiry.”

The fallout from the case has reshaped Minnesota politics and government oversight. The scandal factored into Gov. Tim Walz’s 

, and lawmakers recently approved a new inspector general’s office aimed at preventing future fraud in state social service programs.

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Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock faces sentencing after prosecutors say she led a massive scheme that stole hundreds of millions of dollars from pandemic-era child nutrition programs.

Aimee Bock faces sentencing in Feeding Our Future fraud case

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